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Design for Living by Lena Lawrence Editor's note. Landmark Designs is a West Coast company that designs houses and sells mail-order house plans. Every year, the company surveys people about their housing needs to identify national trends. The response of Lena Lawrence, of Corcoran, Calif., to one such survey appears below. began carrying your designs, and 1 must congratulate you on being a little more imaginative than most house planners. I see you sometimes feature what I have long considered desirable but never findhaving the living area upstairs and the sleeping quarters downstairs. View-wise it makes sense, and downstairs bedrooms are safer, because escape is more likely if there is a fire at night. The Bee article said you were compiling suggestions into a survey. I'm a 57-year-old grandmother who raised five children on a farm here in California's central val ley. Through experience I can tell you what a lot of house plans do not include and should, and also what they often include and shouldn't. O No wasted space-Heating, cooling and upkeep are continuing expenses, so it is vital for all of the space in a house to be useful and not sit idle, and this is achieved through planning. Separate large living rooms and formal dining rooms are wasteful. When people gather, they invariably form a friendly group in the enclosed kitchen-breakfast nook area, while the cook, who is busy finishing up the meal, tries to get them out from underfoot. Efforts to shoo them out into the big living room with its nicely arranged furniture are always in vain-they keep wandering back because it's cozier in the kitchen. Much better is the combined kitchen-dining-living area. People love to sit around a table and sip and snack and visit. They like this more than juggling food on their laps while sitting on a sofa. As for the kitchen, it should be fairly large and have a generous counter and plenty of storage space. It should have windows, and should be open to the dining-living area. The cook should not be pun- ished by isolation. A central island with lots of storage beneath is ideal. I don't like walls, or even half-walls. My own home has some undesir- n July 1, 1984, the Fresno Bee able features, but one thing I like is the space for a big table. Our table is always in use. It's a good spot for tasks and hobbies that need a flat, large surface. Three family members can be eating, somebody is doing homework and I'm folding laundry on it all at the same time. It's better to do the finances on the big table than at some claustrophobic tiny built-in desk in a corner. I know you don't provide the table, but in visualizing what I mean you can design the area for it. The kitchen-dining area should be bigger than the rest of the living area. This makes the home more livable, and brings the TV or whatever closer to where the action normally is. In a one-story home, one of the bedrooms should be located near the living area. This way it can be used as a den for quiet visits-you can close the door on the busier living area. So this room can also be used as a bedroom it should include a wardrobe and a sofa-bed. I have yet to see a floor plan that contains the one feature needed to make it perfect. I'm talking about a roomy closet where you can stick things like the vacuum cleaner, ironing board, card table, folding chairs, stepstool, large baskets, TV trays-all those awkward items that just don't fit in the narrow closets of even luxury homes. One shouldn't have to put these things in the walk-in closet of the master bedroom. The roomy closet should be incorporated into the utility room or wherever else it would fit. I sometimes get the feeling that people who design houses have never lived in one, since they don't strive to meet real needs. One of the reasons I maintain that a house should have more storage and less dead space is to spare the poor garage. Garage clutter is the result of poor house plans. A garage shouldn't be roomy. It should be just big enough for the vehicles. Then the garage wouldn't be forever a mess, and the garage doors could be open without risking loss of articles to thieves. Elsewhere, perhaps attached to the house, would be a storage room with a fairly wide door that could be locked. This room would hold yard equipment, tools, a workbench, bicycles, toys-all the usual garage paraphernalia. The mudroom and laundryHaving been a farm wife all these years, I am very familiar with dirt and grease on husband and children. And I daresay people who live in the suburbs can get dirty too, with gardening and tinkering. I have seen half-hearted attempts lately at mudrooms in designs, but they are inadequate. I think a mudroom should be positioned behind the garage, and also exit into the back yard. It should blend into the utility area, which is also behind the garage. The mudroom would be the passage between the garage and kitchen, reducing footsteps after grocery shopping. Ideally, the mudroom should have a large sink with about a 3-ft. counter alongside. Underneath could be space for boots and muddy shoes. Above the counter, there should be hooks or racks for hand towels. One wall surface should also contain hooks for jackets, umbrellas and the like. Do you get the picture? The big sink and counter are excellent for adult washing-up and wonderful for processing the mud pie set more quickly than using the big bathtub. The mudroom would be a good place to wash the dog in cold weather, repot houseplants, arrange flowers, and rinse the mop. A tiny compartment containing only a toilet would be very handy in the mudroom. There would be no need for a wash ba- who sometimes get the feeling that people I sin, since the mudroom sink is close by. What is laughably called the util- ity room in most house plans is nothing more than a washer and dryer stuck in a traffic lane. Doing laundry isn't a once-a-year thing, and it involves quite a bit of folding and sorting. So it shouldn't take place in a traffic lane, but in a separate room. This room should also have space for a freezer, and ample shelves for canned and packaged goods and general kitchen overflow. Between a cabinet and a wall should be installed a clothes rod about 2 ft. long. This would be the ideal spot to hang drip-dry wash or freshly ironed garments. Under it would be a good spot for pet dishes and the litter box. There should also be space for a clothes hamper, built in or otherwise. Bed and bath-Designers have been very impractical about bathrooms. When my family and I stay in motels, we love having the wash basins and mirrors separate from the tub-shower and toilet. This arrangement is just as convenient as the two complete bathrooms back home. Even in fancy restaurant restrooms, the toilets are separated from the wash basins. Why in the home must the toilet be in the same room as the tub and shower? With compartmentalization, a household could do nicely with just one toilet, one tub-shower and one dressing area with a set of wash basins and mirrors. It sure would cut building costs. As for the bedrooms, I just don't understand house plans that have mall-sized master suites and cubbyholes for the children. Youngsters and teenagers have oodles of possessions, spend lots of time in their rooms, and entertain their friends in there. They need a lot more space than their parents. I am a practical person. I think since design houses have never lived in one, they don't strive to meet real needs. the ideas I have suggested would contribute to a very efficient house with no wasted space and no clutter. Even with three bedrooms, it would need to be no more than 1,800 sq. ft. D The mailing address for Landmark Designs is Box 430, Fallbrook, Ca- lif. 92028-0430. December 1985/January 1986 63